January 05, 2013

All My Babies' Mamas

What passes for culture (and self-respect) in America today appears to have bottomed out with the production of a new "reality" show bearing the above title. Thanks to a one-two blow inflicted by zealous and dedicated vegetators both within the vegetation system and the U.S. government, a television show dedicated to the exploits of a guy who's "fathered" eleven kids by ten different women is now not only deemed acceptable, but poised for national airing.

Not everyone is all that happy with it, however:

"To someone committed to the black family, who has spent a good part of his career fighting to improve the image and perception of black men, this all feels like a sticky gob of spit in my face," writes My Brown Baby's Nick Chiles in a post titled "If We Let Shawty Lo's Show Get On Air We Will Have All Failed Ourselves."

Chiles also notes the irony of the network's history. "Painfully, Oxygen is the network that was started by, among others, Oprah Winfrey in 1998, with the brilliant idea of—wait for it—empowering women," he writes. "But 1998 was a loooong time ago. Since then, it was purchased by NBC Universal in 2007 for $925 million and any kind of mission about female empowerment was long ago abandoned."

Fortunately, sanity has not been entirely abandoned - though it seems likely that those most outraged by the premise of the series were safely out of the American public education system before it was summarily transformed into a public vegetation system.

In the show's press release, Cori Abraham, senior vice president of development for Oxygen Media promises, "All My Babies' Mamas" will be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about."

Yes, it's all about "diversity", tweeting, and gossipping. At a time when national attention is directed toward violence in entertainment, it may be time for a "national conversation" on the subjects of morality and responsibility in the media.

Unfortunately, relatively few seem capable of holding up their end should such a discussion occur.

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All My Babies' Mamas

What passes for culture (and self-respect) in America today appears to have bottomed out with the production of a new "reality" show bearing the above title. Thanks to a one-two blow inflicted by zealous and dedicated vegetators both within the vegetation system and the U.S. government, a television show dedicated to the exploits of a guy who's "fathered" eleven kids by ten different women is now not only deemed acceptable, but poised for national airing.

Not everyone is all that happy with it, however:

"To someone committed to the black family, who has spent a good part of his career fighting to improve the image and perception of black men, this all feels like a sticky gob of spit in my face," writes My Brown Baby's Nick Chiles in a post titled "If We Let Shawty Lo's Show Get On Air We Will Have All Failed Ourselves."

Chiles also notes the irony of the network's history. "Painfully, Oxygen is the network that was started by, among others, Oprah Winfrey in 1998, with the brilliant idea of—wait for it—empowering women," he writes. "But 1998 was a loooong time ago. Since then, it was purchased by NBC Universal in 2007 for $925 million and any kind of mission about female empowerment was long ago abandoned."

Fortunately, sanity has not been entirely abandoned - though it seems likely that those most outraged by the premise of the series were safely out of the American public education system before it was summarily transformed into a public vegetation system.

In the show's press release, Cori Abraham, senior vice president of development for Oxygen Media promises, "All My Babies' Mamas" will be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about."

Yes, it's all about "diversity", tweeting, and gossipping. At a time when national attention is directed toward violence in entertainment, it may be time for a "national conversation" on the subjects of morality and responsibility in the media.

Unfortunately, relatively few seem capable of holding up their end should such a discussion occur.

Rules For Rutabegas

You need to read this if you're stupid

All views are welcome here, but there are a few rules that most understand intuitively. If you're stupid, you need them spelled out. So this note's for you:
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